Our aims

Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies (LINCS)

Our Core Purpose

To create multilingual, multicultural, global, citizen.

To engage in high quality, internationally recognised research and teaching that sustains a challenging and rewarding learning experience for all our students and contributes to our impact with local, national and international organisations and communities.

Our Mission

Our mission is to continue to focus on our established and distinctive strengths of translation and interpretation, as well as building the emerging areas of living cultural heritage and language policy.

Our Vision

Our vision for 2015 – 2018 is to be recognised as a dynamic and distinctive Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies, renowned internationally for its multi-disciplinary education, research and knowledge exchange.

Our Departmental strategy reflects Heriot-Watt and SoSS’s overarching aims of internationalisation, research intensification and teaching excellence. LINCS has over 500 students studying in our various UG and PG taught programmes, with students from over 15 different countries. Our composition affords us the unique opportunity to deliver inter-disciplinary research publications, research funding and impact. We offer outstanding education informed both by our research expertise and our distinctive scholarship. As a result we are regarded as providers of high-standard language professionals and experts in culture and communication.

Among our students, we seek to develop the knowledge and skills that will enable them to live and work in an increasingly multilingual and multicultural society. Our students will develop graduate attributes as reflective citizens that are critical thinkers, problem-solvers, open-minded and committed to professional development. Our programmes are based upon research-led teaching that systematically develop students’ interest in, and understanding of, language and intercultural communication, equipping them with the skills necessary for graduate employability and life-long learning.

We celebrate the international character of the Department and the opportunities this offers for enriching the student experience. We strive to develop effective working relationships with our collaborative partners nationally and internationally and recognise them and their students as members of our Department.

We commit to undertaking research that is significant, having an impact on a multilingual, multicultural society. We seek to understand the society we live in, how people interact and communicate, and the interactions between people, resources, heritage, language and culture.

In our community engagement, we seek to develop sustainable relationships that promote knowledge exchange, enabling our stakeholders to participate effectively in our teaching and research.

We recognise the importance of continuing life-long learning and seek to develop effective mechanisms to promote this by offering Continuing Professional Development opportunities in collaboration with key stakeholders.

Our Values

LINCS embeds the core Heriot-Watt University values in all its activities: